I vividly remember the day I first read the name BookBub: I was in a hotel in Stuttgart, Germany. As I sat in the lobby, waiting for my room, I scrolled through my mail and found a newsletter from a writer I admired, who was chronicling her journey in self-publishing.

It was an author, Paulette Alden, who had won numerous awards for her short stories, who was a Stanford University Stegner Fellow, who taught in prestigious MFA programs across the country, and who had not been able to find a publisher for her latest novel.

Having self-published her novel a few months before, Paulette was now excited to report that a promotional company named BookBub had agreed to promote her book, which she was giving away for free to gain readership. The result: In one day, her novel was downloaded by over 35,000 different readers.